List of former sovereign states

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A historical sovereign state is a state that once existed, but has since been dissolved due to conflict, war, rebellion, annexation, or uprising. This page lists sovereign states, countries, nations, or empires that have ceased to exist as political entities, grouped geographically and by constitutional nature.[note 1]

The most recent sovereign states to cease to exist within each continent are:

Criteria for inclusion[edit | edit source]

The criteria for inclusion in this list are similar to that of the list of states with limited recognition. To be included here, a polity must have claimed statehood and either:

  • had de facto control over a territory, a population, a government, a capacity to enter into relations with other states, or
  • have been recognised as a state by at least one other state.

For purposes of this list, the cutoff between medieval and early modern states is the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Ancient and medieval states[edit | edit source]

Modern states and territories by geography[edit | edit source]

Africa[edit | edit source]

Morocco (Maghreb al-Aqsa)[edit | edit source]

Egypt, Sudan and Libya[edit | edit source]

Algeria (Central Maghreb)[edit | edit source]

Comoro Islands[edit | edit source]

Madagascar[edit | edit source]

Sub-Saharan Africa[edit | edit source]

Horn of Africa[edit | edit source]

Western Africa[edit | edit source]

African Great Lakes[edit | edit source]

Eastern Africa[edit | edit source]

Central Africa[edit | edit source]

Southern Africa[edit | edit source]

Asia[edit | edit source]

Central Asia[edit | edit source]

East Asia[edit | edit source]

Korean Peninsula[edit | edit source]

West Asia[edit | edit source]

Afghanistan[edit | edit source]
Anatolia[edit | edit source]
Cyprus[edit | edit source]
Mesopotamia[edit | edit source]
Persia[edit | edit source]
Levant[edit | edit source]
Arabian Peninsula[edit | edit source]

South Asia[edit | edit source]

Southeast Asia[edit | edit source]

Europe[edit | edit source]

Nordic countries[edit | edit source]

In the Nordic countries, unions were personal, not unitary

Modern France[edit | edit source]

Modern Germany[edit | edit source]

Switzerland[edit | edit source]

Italy[edit | edit source]

Modern United Kingdom[edit | edit source]

Ireland[edit | edit source]

Low Countries[edit | edit source]

Poland[edit | edit source]

Ukraine[edit | edit source]

Crimea[edit | edit source]

Baltic countries and Belarus[edit | edit source]

Romania and Moldova[edit | edit source]

Russia[edit | edit source]

Hungary[edit | edit source]

Czech Republic and Slovakia[edit | edit source]

Austria[edit | edit source]

Balkans[edit | edit source]

Caucasus[edit | edit source]

Iberian Peninsula[edit | edit source]

North America[edit | edit source]

Anguilla[edit | edit source]

Canada[edit | edit source]

Costa Rica[edit | edit source]

Cuba[edit | edit source]

Dominican Republic[edit | edit source]

Grenada[edit | edit source]

Guatemala[edit | edit source]

Haiti[edit | edit source]

Mexico[edit | edit source]

Nicaragua[edit | edit source]

United States[edit | edit source]

Oceania[edit | edit source]

South America[edit | edit source]

Argentina[edit | edit source]

Bolivia[edit | edit source]

Brazil[edit | edit source]

Chile[edit | edit source]

Colombia[edit | edit source]

Ecuador[edit | edit source]

Paraguay[edit | edit source]

Peru[edit | edit source]

Uruguay[edit | edit source]

Venezuela[edit | edit source]

Modern states and territories by type[edit | edit source]

Dismembered countries[edit | edit source]

These states are now dissolved into a number of states, none of which retain the old name.

Nominally independent homelands of South Africa[edit | edit source]

Four of the homelands, or bantustans, for black South Africans, were granted nominal independence by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Not recognised by other nations, these effectively were puppet states and were re-incorporated in 1994.

Secessionist states[edit | edit source]

These nations declared themselves independent, but failed to achieve it in fact or did not seek permanent independence and were either re-incorporated into the mother country or incorporated into another country.

Annexed countries[edit | edit source]

These nations, once separate, are now part of another country. Cases of voluntary accession are included.

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ^ The asserted sovereignty of some states listed here was generally unrecognized; the list of historical unrecognized states and dependencies article may contain further information regarding such states.
  2. ^ The Nawabs of Bengal ruled the Bengal Subah – a province of the Mughal Empire which pretty much became independent from 1717.
  3. ^ Partially recognized state existed after WWII

Further reading[edit | edit source]

  • Berge, Bjørn. Nowherelands: An Atlas of Vanished Countries 1840–1975. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2017 ISBN 9780500519905 240p.
  • Harding, Les. Dead Countries of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Aden to Zululand. Scarecrow Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8108-3445-6

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